This is the game every kart racer wants to be. The success of this game mainly comes down to the fact that anyone can pick up and play, and that everyone already knows who Mario is. The mechanics are simple enough for the newbies, and advanced enough for people who want some challenge. With that being said, Mario kart has always been a game of luck. The thrill of being in last then getting an overpowered item to blast to first is unmatched.
If it weren't for the DLC tracks this would have gotten a lower score than the Wii U version, it's just a port of the old game sold for full price again, but now you can't say no to the sheer size of tracks avaiable to play (and since the online has been shutdown on Wii U this is where you want to challenge your online friends)
when i was 9 years old and got this with my brand new switch i looked up how to unlock everything, including the gold wheels. i heard that you needed to beat every single employee ghost on 200cc. i only played this game in that context for 300 hours over 6 years until i finally finished the most challenging racing game ever. i unlocked nothing. apparently i was supposed to have been playing on 150cc the whole time. turns out that the 150cc ghosts were actually designed for kids to be able to beat them and i unlocked the gold wheels 3 hours after i realized my entire reality had been pointless.
Just a really fun game. It didn't click for me until I did a 200cc race and realized how much the game changes at that speed. It's so fun to drift and brake around corners perfectly. The driving is so fast paced it makes it enjoyable to do the same races over and over again. Online play is solid as well. Looks incredible on the switch at 60 fps.
Having the already great 8th, but re-released with all the DLC unlocked is great package. Additionally, I enjoyed all the extra cups added as even more DLC, for a pretty reasonable price. The only reason for not giving it 5/5 stars, is due to the ever-present lackluster single player options. As a party game, it stands tall, just as expected.